


She Does Blame Me

by clandestinemeetingsinthetrees



Series: ZK Drabble December 2020 [4]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Episode: s03e16 The Southern Raiders, F/M, Zuko (Avatar) is Bad at Feelings, Zuko Doesn't Get Why Katara Is Mad At Him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:49:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27911794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clandestinemeetingsinthetrees/pseuds/clandestinemeetingsinthetrees
Summary: Zuko tries to figure out why Katara is mad at him. Set during The Southern Raiders after Katara yells at him and before he talks to Sokka.Written for ZK Drabble December 2020 day 4
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: ZK Drabble December 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2040542
Kudos: 7
Collections: ZK Drabble December 2020





	She Does Blame Me

“What can I do to make it up to you?”

Zuko doesn’t understand why he cares so much what she thinks, but he does, and it’s been driving him crazy.

“You really wanna know?” She spits venom as she speaks. “Hmm, maybe you could reconquer Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth King. Or, I know, you can bring my mother back!”

She pushes past him, storming back to the campsite. _Well, that went well._ He considers following her but thinks better of it and leaves her be. Instead, he paces by the cliff side. She doesn’t make any sense! He knew Katara would be hard to win over, but it’s been weeks now and he’s been trying everything.

For the past week, he’d been helping her with dinner. He’s not a great cook by any means, if fact he’d never really had to cook much at all, but he could help start the fires and he’d learned to make a decent cup of tea while he was in the Earth Kingdom (even if Uncle says it still tastes like hot leaf juice). Was she mad at him for helping? No, that can’t be it. In fact, she was always the nicest to him when he helped out in the kitchen.

What changed in the past 24 hours to make her that mad at him! Was it because he saved her from those rocks, because honestly, she should be thanking him! She’d literally be dead right now if it weren’t for him, or at least seriously injured.

No instead she gets mad at him and when he calmly asks her what he can do fix it, she gives him a list of impossible things. Reconquer Ba Sing Se? Okay, he’ll admit to that definitely being his fault in the first place but there wasn’t much he could do about it now. He understood her anger at him over that, in a lot of ways he was still angry at himself due to it. But bringing her mother back from the dead? What in Agni’s name was that supposed to mean?!

He was started to get frustrated and shot off some fire from his fists to let of steam. Bending into the void has always been one of his best stress relievers.

_Why would she bring up her mother? She can’t possibly blame me for that! I was in the Fire Nation! And ten!_

What else did she bring up… She talked about trusting him in Ba Sing Se and then the whole betraying them…

Ba Sing Se… Ba Sing Se… He remembers the sad look in her eyes when she brought up her mother and how the Fire Nation took her away. He remembers her looking at his scar and saying when she thought of the Fire Nation, it was his face she saw…

Oh Agni, she _does_ blame me.

And then it all makes sense. Every time she looks at his face, all she can see is her mother’s death. It hurts, but he understands. _How can I fix this?_

I just have to give her a different face to picture, a different face to hate. She can’t keep blaming it all on me, that’s not fair.

When he returns to camp, everyone’s already in bed. He must have been thinking for a while. He makes his way to Sokka’s tent with one goal in mind. _I’ll get her to forgive me, whatever it takes._


End file.
